Cellular phones have gained widespread acceptance because they are just as easy to use as traditional telephone sets to which people have become familiar to use. When dialing out, a person simply enters the telephone number by depressing the numbered buttons on the cellular phone. Rather than connecting via twisted pair wires, the cellular phone transmits its signals over-the-air. Upon receiving a phone call, the cellular phone would audibly “ring” to notify the recipient of the incoming call. The recipient can then answer the call and talk to the caller via wireless radio frequency (RF) communications.
Due to the mobile flexibility offered by cellular phones and the convenience of being able to make a call or being able to be contacted virtually anywhere, people are taking their cellular phones along with them wherever they may go. One side-effect is that cellular phones can firing at inopportune times. For instance, a cellular phone may ring during a concert performance, a play, a conference, a meeting, or dinner at an upscale restaurant. At best, these occurrences are embarrassing to the user and annoying to others around them. However, more and more people are buying and subscribing to cellular phone services as prices for the handsets and monthly service fees continue to drop. This increased proliferation of cellular phones has exacerbated the distractions resulting from audible ringing of cellular phones. In the past, a single case of a cell phone ringing might pose a minor irritation; but now, with multiple cell phones regularly ringing whenever there are large congregations of people, this problem is becoming a major, intolerable nuisance.
In view of the potential distraction imposed by audible ringing, cell phone manufacturers have added non-audible notification features. For example, some cell phone models have a vibration feature. A user can disable the audible ringing and elect the vibration function. The cell phone notifies the user of an incoming call by vibrating. Alternatively, the user can be notified by a blinking light.
Unfortunately, not everyone is diligent enough or remembers to deactivate the audible ringing of their cellular phones when appropriate. Additionally, it is an inconvenience to the user to physically activate and then subsequently reactivate their cell phone's audible ringing.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an apparatus or method for selectively activating and deactivating the ringing of cell phones under appropriate circumstances. The present invention provides a unique, novel solution to the problems discussed above.